1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a customer history management method and system in online shopping, and, in particular, to a customer history management method and system in online shopping, in which online shopping, in mail-order business using an online system, information of goods is transmitted to a customer from a center, the information of goods is displayed at the customer side and the customer may select a desired one of the goods.
In the online shopping, a system is demanded by which system, for each customer, information as to which goods were bought by the customer, information as to which goods the customer is curious about, and so forth are managed, and also, through which system, the customer may easily search for goods which the customer wishes to buy or is curious about.
2. Description of the Related Art
In online shopping in the related art, once a customer (user) is registered in a mail-order selling system which is provided by a center through a communications network, the center transmits various goods information to the customer. The transmitted goods information is displayed on a CRT at the customer side. Then, according to predetermined instructions shown on the CRT screen for making an order for a desired article, the customer makes an order for a desired article by inputting an article code, a number of the articles to be ordered, a cost thereof and so forth.
The center may manage goods information, which is transmitted from stores, for each store. The center transmits to the customer the individual goods information which were produced for the particular stores. Before starting the online shopping, the customer transmits to the center a name of a store from which the customer wishes to buy an article. Then, the center searches for and thus retrieves the information concerning that store and transmits this information to the customer. The customer refers to the transmitted goods information which was edited in the individual way of that store. The customer then makes an order for the article in a method similar to the above-mentioned method. In the goods information, the displayed contents and sequence thereof are fixed. Specifically, at first, the store is introduced, and then goods are introduced for each section.
However, in the above-described example in the related art, it is not possible to mark information of an article shown in goods information transmitted from the center in a catalog form, which article the customer is curious about but has not made a decision to order yet. In a case where goods are introduced on paper sheets as in an actual catalog book, it is possible to mark information of an article about which the customer is curious by folding the paper sheet, or adhering a tag to the paper sheet. Thereby, it is easy to search the catalog book for the information of the article shown on the paper sheet afterwards. However, in the case of online shopping, the information of the article is displayed on the CRT, and, therefore, it is not possible to again refer to the information of the article after the online system has been terminated. As a result, selection of an article is equivalent to ordering of the article in the online shopping in the related art. Therefore, a customer who is curious about an article but has not made a decision to order the article may actually order the article. If so, the customer will have to cancel the order when the customer changes his or her mind.
Further, in a case where the customer performs the online shopping using the goods information which was produced for each store as described above, when a store is specified, an introduction to the store is displayed first. Because the display sequence is fixed as mentioned above, even in a case where the customer previously specified the same store and thus was already shown the same store introduction display, the customer has to be shown the same store introduction display each time the store is specified. Further, in this online shopping system in the related art, information indicating the customers previously accessed information is not managed. Therefore, in a case where a customer accesses information in the morning and then the same customer accesses the same information in the afternoon, screens of image information displayed in the afternoon are the same as that displayed in the morning. As a result, for example, even when the customer access the information in the afternoon, a fixed message xe2x80x98Good morning, may I help you?xe2x80x99 is displayed in response thereto.
Further, until the information which the customer previously referred to and wishes to refer to again is reached, the customer will again be shown screens of image information the same as that which the customer was already shown when previously having referred to the information. Such a situation is inefficient and uneconomical in online information transmission.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a customer history management method and system in online shopping, in which method and system a mark is automatically given to information of an article about which a customer is curious:, screens of image information which were previously viewed by the customer are skipped over and thereby the customer can easily retrieve the information of that article.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a customer history management method and system in online shopping, in which method and system, in goods information which was produced for a particular store, if screens of image information such as a store introduction which were already shown to a customer accompany the goods information, unless the customer inputs special instructions for the accompanying screens of image information to be displayed, only the goods information can be automatically provided.
A first aspect of the present invention, in online shopping, manages customer information when a customer selects and buys a desired article from goods information provided to a customer terminal from a center which provides online shopping information including the goods information to the customer terminal, and comprises steps of:
a) storing goods information in storage means for each customer individually, which goods information is goods information selected by the customer from goods information provided by the center; and
b) reading goods information from the storage means the next time a goods information search request is made by said customer, the read goods information being immediately displayed on a screen of the customer terminal.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, when goods information which has been provided by the center is displayed, the customer selects desired articles from the goods information. After the article selection is finished, a list of articles which were selected is displayed. The customer selects from the list of articles, articles to be actually bought. Then, information of articles which were bought and information of articles which were selected but were not bought are stored, separately.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, either a list of. selected articles or a list of bought articles is stored for each customer individually. A customer tendency is derived from either the list of articles selected or the list of articles bought, and the tendency is stored for each customer individually.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, an identifier of the customer is input, and a list of articles, which articles are articles that the customer of the identifier marked previously, is displayed. Articles that the customer actually decides to buy from the list of articles is determined. Then, the articles that the customer decided to buy are marked and stored for the customer individually.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, for each store which sells goods, either history information of article selection or article buying, or history information of access of the store is stored for each customer individually.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, as history information of the customer, a time the customer comes to the store and a time the customer leaves the store are stored. Then, with reference to the stored times, information being provided for the customer on a screen is appropriately changed.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, a total cost of articles which the customer selects or buys in the store, or goods information about articles that the customer selects or buys in the store is stored. Then, with reference to the stored information, information being provided for the customer on a screen is appropriately changed.
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, a tendency of the customer is derived from the history information. Then, screen image goods information being provided to the customer is selected depending on the tendency.
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, store member registration screen image information is provided for the customer only when the customer has not become a member of the store.
According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in online shopping, customer information when a customer selects and buys desired article from goods information provided to a customer terminal by a center which provides online shopping information including the goods information to the customer terminal is managed. As history information, goods information which was selected by the customer from goods information provided by a store is stored. Then, the history information is referred to the next time the customer requests a provision of goods information, and goods information, which was stored as the history information, is provided for the customer.
According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in online shopping, a history when a customer accesses the center is managed. A center provides shopping information through an online system, and a terminal is used for inputting selection of desired articles from the shopping information provided by the center. The center comprises:
article selection information storage means for storing article selection information about articles that the customer selects;
article buying information storage means for storing article buying information about articles that the customer buys;
marked information storage means for storing information after marking the information, the information being a difference between all the article selection information stored in the article selection information storage means and the article buying information stored in the article buying information storage means;
marked information providing means for, when provision of the shopping information is requested through the terminal, reading marked information from the marked information storage means, and providing the marked information through the terminal.
According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, in online shopping, a history when a customer accesses the center is managed. A center provides shopping information through an online system, and a terminal is used for inputting selection of desired articles from the shopping information provided by the center. The center comprises:
article selection information storage means for storing article selection information about articles that the customer selects;
article selection information providing means for providing the article selection information through the terminal;
bought-article-removed information storage means for storing article selection information which remains after removing article selection information of articles which the customer has bought, from article selection information provided by the article selection information providing means;
marked information storage means for storing information, the information being obtained as a result of marking information stored in the bought-article-removed information storage means;
marked information providing means for, when provision of the shopping information is requested through the terminal, reading marked information from the marked information storage means, and providing the marked information through the terminal.
According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, in online shopping, a history when a customer accesses the center is managed. A center provides shopping information through an online system, and a terminal is used for inputting selection of desired articles from the shopping information provided by the center. The center comprises:
history information storage means for storing at least one history information of history information of a store that the customer accesses in online shopping, article selection history information and article buying history information; and
screen image information selection means for selecting screen image information being provided through the terminal depending on the history information stored in the history information storage means.
According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, the history information storage means comprises tendency information storage means for storing information indicating a tendency of the article selection history information or the article buying history information.
According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, the center further comprises registration screen image information providing means for providing member registration screen image information for the customer only when the customer has not been registered in the store in the online shopping.
According to a sixteenth aspect of the present invention, in online shopping, managing customer information about when a customer selects and buys a desired article from goods information provided to a customer terminal from a center which provides online shopping information including the goods information to the customer terminal is managed. As history information, goods information which was selected by the customer from goods information provided by a store is stored. Then, the history information is referred to the next time the customer requests provision of goods information, and goods information, which was stored as the history information, is provided to the customer.
In the above-described first, eleventh and sixteenth aspects of the present invention, the goods information of articles that the customer selected from goods information provided by the center is stored as history information. Then, the goods information stored as the history information is extracted and is immediately displayed at the next access case of the customer. Thereby, it is possible to omit display of many screen images until that goods information is reached. Thus, it is possible to easily display articles about which the customer is curious.
In the second and twelfth aspects of the present invention, articles that the customer selected from the goods information provided by the center but did not make orders for are listed after the completion of the article selection. Thereby, the customer can make orders after considering his or her budget and necessity of buying. When the customer makes a final decision of buying of some articles, then the customer inputs this information. Further, the goods information of the articles that the customer selected but did not buy and the goods information of the articles that the customer bought are separately stored. The articles that the customer merely selected are articles about which the customer was curious. Therefore, there is a possibility that the customer will buy the articles when accessing the center the next time if the budget condition is fulfilled. Therefore, it is effective to display the goods information of the articles that the customer merely selected at the next access.
In the fourth and thirteenth aspect of the present invention, by marking the goods information of the articles that the customer selected, it is easy to extract the goods information which is then displayed for the customer at the next access. Thus, it is possible to reduce the time required to search for the goods information.
In the third aspect of the present invention, the customer""s tendencies (or tastes, for example, of size, color, article kinds) are derived from the articles that the customer selected or bought and are stored. Thereby, when the customer is ready to select or buy goods, it is possible to prepare a selection of articles, in accordance with the tendencies, before the customer actually inputs the selection. Thus, it is possible to reduce the time and the customer""s labor required for article selection and buying operations.
In the fifth aspect of the present invention, by storing history information when the customer accessed the store previously, it is possible to provide appropriate screen image information for the customer based on the stored history information. For example, when the customer is already a member of the store (such a fact is stored as the history information), a display of the member registration screen image may be omitted. Further, when the customer was already shown the store introductions (such a fact is also stored as the history information), a display thereof may be omitted.
In the sixth aspect of the present invention, by storing times-the customer used the store previously as the history information, goods information being provided for the customer may be appropriately changed. For:example, there was no stock of articles at a time t1 in the store when the customer accesses the store. However, when the customer accesses the store at a time t2, stock of the articles has been filled. In such a case, by storing the time t1, it is recognized that there was no stock of the articles when the customer accessed the store previously. Then, it is possible to especially inform the customer that the stock of the articles is now filled the next time the customer accesses the store. Thereby, the customer can easily notice that the articles are now available. Thus, in a case where conditions of stocks and services in the store vary as time passes, it is possible to appropriately respond to such a variation by providing suitable shopping information for the customer.
In the seventh aspect of the present invention, by including a sum of money spent for goods at the store in the history information, it is possible that a special service such as a special bargain may be given for the customer whose total sum of money spent at the store is in excess of a predetermined amount. In such as case, a message indicating such a special service is displayed as a screen image.
According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, by including the customer""s tendencies (tastes) in the history information, similar to the fourth aspect of the present invention, when the customer is ready to select or buy goods, it is possible to prepare a selection of articles, in accordance with the tendencies, before the customer actually inputs the selection. Thus, it is possible to reduce the time and the customer""s labor required for article selection and buying operations.
According to the ninth and fourteenth aspects of the present invention, a display of the member registration screen image for the customer may be omitted as a result of recognizing that the customer is already a member of the store from the history information. Thereby, an article selection screen image is immediately displayed for the customer. The member registration screen image is used to register a new customer in the store and also register supplementary customer""s personal information.
In the tenth and sixteenth aspect of the present invention, when the customer accesses the store, his or her access history is referred to and it is determined that he or she previously accessed the store. Thereby, a search is made for marked goods information which should be present because he or she accessed the store previously. Thus, the marked goods information is automatically extracted and shown to the customer. The customer can easily be shown the goods information of the articles about which the customer was previously curious.
In the related art, a customer always needs to be shown many screen images headed by an initial screen image and must click for each display of screen image until an article selection screen image is reached. However, according to the present invention, by storing a customer""s history of article selection, history of store access and so forth, it is possible to reduce the number of screen images until the article selection screen of image is reached the next time the customer accesses the store. Thereby, it is possible to drastically reduce the time required for the online shopping, and thus reduce communications costs required for online data transmission.
Further, by storing the history information, a customer needs to perform a member registration operation only once. Thereby, labor born by the customer for performing the online shopping can be effectively reduced.
Further, when the marked goods information is provided for a customer, the customer""s coming-to-store (store-accessing) history information may be referred to and also the particular customer""s personal information such as his or her size, favorite color, etc., may be referred to. Thereby, it is possible to provide for the customer the minimum necessary screen images and thus to cause the customer to perform a click operation a minimum necessary number of times. Thereby, a load born by the customer can be effectively reduced.
Other objects and further features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.